


the not dating dating equation

by fated_addiction



Category: GOT7, K-pop, KARA (Band), Korean Actor RPF, 룸메이트 | Roommate (TV)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Romance, lol all the dates all the time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-07
Updated: 2015-06-07
Packaged: 2018-04-03 06:18:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4090189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fated_addiction/pseuds/fated_addiction
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Jackson comes with a warning label. She's serious, you know.</i>
</p><p>Jackson, Youngji, and the fencing lesson <strike>dating ban</strike> that never was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the not dating dating equation

Jackson comes with a warning label.

She's serious, you know. He does. Ask any of his friends about him and they'll say things like: "Take him with a grain of salt!" or "Listen, man, if he gets an idea in his head, just run with it or you'll never get to go home!" because all these things are true, considering she has found herself at an impromptu radio show, a ramen bar in Hongdae, and eating barbecue with Amber and Henry at three o'clock in the morning because, well, why the hell not?

The gym though? The gym is new.

She knew she should have been worried when her manager had let her out of the car, in front of the JYP building, only to stop her to gently pat her on the head -- something he hasn't done since she's debuted. "Remember," he says, pushing her forward gently. "At least, we haven't let him take you to Hong Kong yet."

Youngji blinks, blushes, and swallows to fast. "We're NOT _dating_ , oppa," she sputters, but her manager's back in the car, promising to pick her up in a few hours, and she's heading up the stairs, not to the GOT7 practice room but to the private gym that lives near the rooftop.

Jackson is waiting for her at the top of the stairs.

"You could have taken the elevator," he says, thrusting a water bottle into her hand. He grins widely and she rolls her eyes.

"Can't we just have dinner?"

He shakes his head. "Later. We have to wait for Sunny to get out from her radio show."

"Sunny canceled," she says dryly. She hits his arm and he grabs her hand, dragging her forward. "Remember? Her comeback is in a month and her schedule's getting tighter."

"So we order noodles," he says.

Youngji pouts, teasing. "You never take me anywhere nice."

Jackson smirks. "Do you want me to?"

That promptly shuts her up because she never knows what to do when he says things like that. Do you want me to? Do you NEED me to? Questions that are utterly terrifying for a girl, she thinks. He throws in a touch too, here and there. Suddenly her hair is behind her ear. Or his arm is around her shoulders.

Today, it's his hand.

It's warm too. His fingers are laced around hers and his thumb keeps stroking her knuckles. She's known him long enough to understand that he's just that affectionate. It just always feels different for her.

He yanks her into the gym. There is music. It's low and she spots the practice swords before he even says anything to her.

"I'm in the middle of a comeback," she says, dragging her heels. "And yours is coming up. Why don't you ever tell me WHEN and WHY you plan anything --"

"You're not going to hurt me," he says. "There's gear to protect us."

Her eyes are wide. "When I said --"

He drops his hand, whirls around to face her. His grin is wide and bright. He flicks her forehead.

"I'm going to teach you how to fence," he says.

Her eyes are wide.

 

 

 

 

 

The thing about a comeback, having one, getting closer to one, even being in the middle of one, is that you never really realize how stressful it is until you STOP moving.

Youngji feels her shoulders tighten as she eyes the swords with a mix of wariness and curiosity. Jackson tries to finish tying her protective gear.

"It's called a foil," he says. "They're harmless. The point's turned back so that people are less prone to injury when they use them.

"Good to know," she says. She struggles, trying to find the time that she asked him to teach her because her mind is turning blank.

He starts to talk about things like form and posture and his hands are suddenly on her back and shoulders, and he's sort of, kind of, okay maybe he's NOT but he's really in her space. His arm links around her waist and she can feel his mouth graze the back of her neck as he explains something called a French Grip and then a _neuvieme_ which is something about a parry and defense and her head is spinning.

"You're going to feed me after this?"

He laughs, pulling back from her. "Is it my turn?"

Her eyes narrow. "You can't back out of it," she says. "I bought dinner last time. You ate SO much meat, you know."

"You _offered_ ," he throws back.

She kicks at the mat. "Meat, Jackson. MEAT."

"Not my fault you took me somewhere good," he says.

Her eyes narrow again.

She doesn't say anything because then he launches into another round of explanations, starting from the basics of what it means to be on guard and then directing her through the parries. He's a good teacher. He stops twice to review her position.

"I won a medal, you know," he tells her, and she laughs because, of course, she knows. 

But she can feel herself start to relax and the stress from being in the middle of her comeback is starting to melt a little. The internet comments are spinning her head: _ugh she's ugly_ , _can't sing_ , _not nicole_ , and every other derisive thing that's been said about her and the others.

Youngji's focus starts to center and Jackson directs her into sparring with him. Her wrist flicks and she follows his movements seriously, even accidentally pushing forward, acting into offense instead of defending herself against his parries.

"Good," he says. "Good."

She bites her lip. They break back and she's breathing heavily, sweat sticking against her throat and shoulders. She removes her cardigan, peeling it off to reveal her tank top and some of the bruises she's gotten from dancing.

"Wait."

Jackson frowns, moving forward. "What's that?" He takes her wrist. "What happened?"

She laughs. "I'm clumsy, remember?"

"That's a lie."

"We forgot that they waxed the floors," she tells him. It's true. Hara's knees are nastier than her arms. "Hara-eonni fell first. And I'm an idiot for using new shoes."

"You are," he agrees, then laughs when she hits him.

She forgets how much she misses him sometimes. It was different when they were living together, or almost living together, to have a definite luxury of seeing him almost all the time, it's still kind of weird _not_ to.

He hasn't let go of her wrist either.

"Three years, huh?"

He blinks. Youngji flushes. She doesn't know where this is coming from all of the sudden. She twirls the hilt of the sword between her fingers.

"Three years?" he asks.

Her mouth tightens. Her face warms.

"Your dating ban," she says. "Three years."

His eyes widen. "Oh." His mouth opens and closes. "Oh. OH. _OH_."

"Relax," she mumbles. "I'm just asking a question."

He frowns. He takes the sword from her. He leans it against the wall with his and then crosses his arms in front of his chest.

"You're so not though."

Her feet shuffle. "Maybe I miss you," she mumbles.

"You're here," he says. He pokes her arm. "We talk almost every day, if not, we really text every day. You're learning how to talk to my _mother_."

Youngji's face goes completely red then. It was supposed to be a surprise, then the surprise that was somehow ruined because Hara told Heechul-oppa who went and told Jackson because he thought it was funny and she's not exactly sure how they met but she thinks it's safe to say that it's probably Henry's fault.

"That's not the point," she says. "The point is that I -- whatever," she mutters.

He cocks his head to the side. He gets this look. She's not entirely sure she should trust it. It's Jackson. She knows better.

"Okay," he says slowly.

"Okay?"

Jackson shrugs. "Let's date then."

"WHAT."

Her eyes are huge, her mouth drops open, and she's not even KIND OF ready for him to drop that on her. There's that voice in her head though, that pulls her aside and goes YAH you're being an idiot -- this is what _you_ wanted. They've never actually talked about it. Them. This. Whatever _this_ is. In fact, she thinks that more people talk about them and them _dating_ than they talk about anything.

And they talk about a lot.

"What," she repeats.

"Date," he says. "Or maybe we're already doing it."

Her nose wrinkles. "Word choice!" Youngji's face burns. "Dating?"

"A date," he says again. He picks up the swords and puts them into a bag. She's still wearing the protective gear. It's not uncomfortable, but she's still a little hot. "Hold hands and stuff."

"You have a dating ban."

He shrugs again. "Self-imposed."

She's bizarrely amused and should have expected this. He steps forward again. He reaches for her then too, brushing her bangs from her face.

"I like your hair," Jackson murmurs. 

She shakes her head. "It's nothing new. You're changing the subject."

"It's lighter. You were darker during Fashion Week. I saw the pictures."

"Can we talk about the fact that you just asked me _out_ and you and your members put a self-imposed dating ban on each other and I don't know what to do with this because we've never actually TALKED ab --"

His mouth covers hers.

It's just a peck.

 

 

 

 

 

( -- it's not really a peck, but she's not really going to say anything because it's something incredibly personal and something she doesn't even kind of want to share because his mouth feels like it's going BURN her and she'd be okay with that because never really realized how much she really, really, really wanted to kiss him but he's kissing her and she's kissing him back and he's pulling the ties off of her safety equipment and it's a little dangerous, a little thrilling, and --)

 

 

 

 

 

He buys her meat.

Or rather, he kisses her FIRST and then buys her meat for dinner. Or their after dinner-dinner. Even though she basically just had some kind of fruit salad because they had to rush off for a show, a shoot, and the rest of her schedule. It's backwards. They do that a lot.

They sit by the window. At this point, they'll probably see the sun rise and thank god, she's got a late schedule tomorrow. The old woman at the counter is sweet though and gives them a double of dumplings after Jackson explains that she's mad at him and he's trying to make it up.

"What is this place?" she asks, begrudgingly, well, slightly anyway. "It's good."

"I'm not going to kiss you again," he teases.

She touches her lips. She glares. It was quick, the kiss, and she remembers Jr. or Mark coming in to say hi and her jumping away because it's strange and insanely personal and she doesn't want to share it with anyone. Just yet.

And secretly, okay, she wanted to kiss him first.

"That wasn't a kiss," she mutters. "You didn't even warn me. And it was short."

Jackson glares. "It was not."

Later, she'll be glad that he didn't get her angry enough or look to get a rise out of her OR that they're not at a place where the grill is _between_ the two of them. She's reaching for him without thinking, her fingers twisting in his jacket and she yanks forward.

"You are going to make me do something stupid," she informs him. "I'm still confused. I would like to know if we're dating. And if we are, it doesn't have to be awkward. I feel like we'll still be us without --"

"I still have to finish teaching you how to fence," he says.

Youngji snorts. "You just want to make out."

"That too," he says. He looks down at her hand and the fistfuls of his jacket. "And for the record, I just gave you a peck."

She's so frustrated and confused and maybe it's just the fact that he sort of kissed her, his mouth was sort of HOT, and yes, of course, she did taste the cherry soda that he had which she was really confused about because he's not really a fan of cherries anyway.

"Hopefully you don't taste like meat," she mutters and he laughs, laughs his way into her mouth as she kisses him first (he disputes that) and in the middle of that stupid, empty restaurant.

Of course, their first kiss is their second kiss.

He taste _sharp_. She really thinks about it. His mouth is sticky and kind of sweet too, but he angles his jaw against hers and she feels his hand moving into her hair, slowly, pulling at the ends of her braid. It's the strangest kiss. It doesn't feel like a first, or last, or like something terribly romantic. It feels like them. Her head spins a little and she feels impossibly still.

It makes sense.

Her eyes are closed when they break apart. She breathes a little. Her fingers loosen in her jacket. Her knees hurt a little too, but she continues to kiss him, drags her teeth over his lip, and decides that she likes that sound that he makes -- that low, raw, and unabashed sound that makes her head spin just a little too face. She feels things like his fingers at her face and she wonders had they been alone, had they REALLY been alone, what kind of kiss this may have been.

She breaks away first. His thumb slides over her lip and she makes a soft sound too.

"You do taste like the meat," she murmurs. "And the spicy sauce too."

Jackson chuckles. "So it's good then?"

Drawing back, she kicks him underneath the table and ignores his laugh.

"Pervert," she mutters, amused. "I guess this means we're dating."

His head tilts. He's half-serious. "Maybe we always were," he replies. He puts a few pieces of meat on her plate. His mouth curls. "It would be something we would do. I'm not good at this. Three year bands make my head a little fuzzy, man. You pick the event next time."

She's smiling into taking a bite. He's right. She should. She points her chopsticks at him.

Youngji is half-serious too. "Maybe we'll try bowling next time," she says.


End file.
